Council Candidates Differ on Organized Trash Hauling for Roseville

Four candidates for the Roseville City Council have differing views on whether the city should adopt a system of organized trash hauling.

At a forum this week, candidates Lisa Laliberte and Bill Hoffman said they oppose Roseville switching from the current trash removal system-where residents choose their own haulers- to one where the city would contract on behalf of all residents for trash removal service.

"I don't believe organized trash hauling is the way to go," Hoffman said at the forum held Tuesday night by the Roseville-Maplewood-Falcon Heights chapter of the Minnesota League of Women Voters. "I think we should explore our recycling program as a single sort."

During the forum, Hoffman confirmed he has received a few campaign contributions from individuals who work for trash hauling firms in Minnesota. But he added, "They support me because of my view on organized collection. I don't see anything wrong with that."

Laliberte said she likes the option of choosing her own trash service. "It (trash hauling service) is not a one size fits all," she contended.

Still, Laliberte said she would want to "look at all the data" to see what would be best for the city and to get residents' input.

Meanwhile, Council candidate Karen Schaffer said the trash service debate is one of priorities to be weighed by the community. She said the Council needs to decide, for example, what value to place on trash service pricing and whether that is more important than reducing the number of garbage trucks traveling on city streets.

Another Council candidate, Jason Etten, said there is concern about a large number of garbage trucks putting wear and tear on city streets and adding to pollution. But acknowledging that residents enjoy having a choice of haulers, Etten suggested that a possible compromise might be for Roseville to bid out certain sections of the city for trash service.

"I would work with citizens and staff input," Etten said.

The issue of organized trash hauling surfaced in Roseville again when the Public Works, Environment and Transportation Commission began studying the issue. Earlier this year, the commission voted to recommend the city consider establishing an organized trash collection system. 

While the creation of organized collection often means a community contracts with just one trash hauler to provide trash hauling service, the Roseville commissoners indicated one of their goals is to make sure current trash haulers can  still maintain their current market shares in the city.

Whatever happens to the trash hauling issue, the Council candidates talked about plenty of other issues too, at the League forum. Their comments included  why they are running for Council, what they want to accompish, how they feel about further retail develoment, whether citizen referendums should be held on bigger city projects and how they would have voted on allowing a new Wal-Mart store for the community's Twin Lakes neighborhood.

In the upcoming days, Roseville Patch will have further stories about the forum and the Council candidates'' comments on other issues.

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